Horror Roundtable Week Eighty-Four
Describe your favourite “era” of horror, and give a prime example for the uninitiated.
It has been said that a writer will usually write about what he/she knows best. Having grown up in the ’80’s, it shouldn’t come as a big surprise that my favourite “era” of horror is the Slasher Era of the late ’70’s and early ’80’s. While some of these films are ridiculously cheesy, it’s hard to imagine a time when Friday the 13th and Halloween weren’t a big part of my life. I know that a good majority of slasher films are not cinematic masterpieces but it doesn’t matter because I still love them.
Jeff
Drive In Movies of the seventies. Human Experiments, Kingdom of the Spiders… cheap and fast and sleazy and heavy on the exploitation that looked SOOOOO good on that big screen.
Retropoliltan - Tales To Astonish
My favorite era of horror is the classic Universal era. I’m pretty sure that this was decided for me when I had my first viewing of “Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein,” waaaay back when I was a wee lad. It was those movies in particular that truly defined all my ideas of the great monster archetypes. It also supplied my young, fertile brain with the most basic horror tropes: thunderstorms, castles, creaky staircases, cackling mad scientists, giant spiderwebs, and so forth.
The most important thing about that era was that those films were (at least in hindsight) essentially innocent films; they were usually simple, short, bloodless stories that were more about entertainment and fun than actual mind-curdling terror. I can certainly appreciate more modern takes on the genre, the kind of movies that are filled with wonderful gore and leave me sleepless for days, but in the end, my heart really belongs to Lugosi, Karloff, and Chaney. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t love the genre like I do if I’d have had my mind destroyed by movies like “Dawn of the Dead” at age six. If that were the case, I’d probably be really into romantic comedies or something now.
Billy
Oh for sure 80s slashers! That’s what I grew up on. It’s nice to check out other kinds now and again, but everytime Friday the 13th or Nightmare on Elmstreet is on the TV, it’ll stop me in my tracks!
I would have to say that I truly enjoy a mix of the 20’s and 30’s eras of horror. All the shadows and angles and blends of thrillers with the horror genre (THE BAT and THE CAT AND THE CANARY) as well as the universal monster series with their homages to the German expressionism and theater in their set design (SON OF FRANKENSTEIN). We also had the further outbreak of the french pulp movement in the 20’s giving us the lurid tales of terror and the fantastique.
If only Black & White films were marketable in today’s theatrical world.
As maligned as it is, I love the mid to late 80’s era, when everything was so over the top that the actors could barely keep straight faces. Although there is some really awful stuff from that period, there are a few gems. What stands out? Return of the Living Dead, Sleepaway Camp 2… pretty much anything from the Friday the 13th series. There are too many to list, but if you’re a fan of “so bad it’s good”, you’d be doing yourself a disservice by NOT checking out films from this era.
Mark - Exclamation Mark’s SciFi/Horror Review
I initially loved the old Universal monsters of the 30s and 40s (Frankenstein, Dracula, The Wolf Man, etc.) and still look to them as standards for horror. Later, though, I found a lot of thrills and amusement in the alien invasion films of the 1950s. Examples would be the original War of the Worlds, The Day the Earth Stood Still, It Came from Outer Space, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), to campier movies like Invisible Invaders and It Conquered the World. All great fun.
Easy: The “twisted tales” anthology style of the 1950s and 1960s, best exemplified by the publications of EC Comics, but also by television shows such as “The Twilight Zone” and “The Outer Limits.” Set up your premise, knock it down with a curveball the audience never saw coming (but don’t cheat!) and move on to the next story. Short sharp shocks– I love them.
Lately, I’ve been getting more and more into the classic Universal stuff of the 1930s, the era of the Laemmles. But I’d have to say that overall, the era that’s always fascinated me the most is ’70s exploitation horror. I’m thinking of stuff like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Dawn of the Dead, Zombi 2, I Spit on Your Grave, Suspiria, etc. That’s the stuff that drew me into horror, and it will always have a sick little place in my heart.
Man, this is a tough one. Before the suckfest of the mid-90s and beyond we had a great run of flicks. As much as I want to say 60’s or 70’s. I have a warm spot for the early 80’s flicks such as FRIGHT NIGHT, NIGHT OF THE DEMONS, MONSTER SQUAD, GREMLINS, and so forth. It was a perfect blend of humor, weirdness, and monsters.
I love 30s and 70s horror equally. Both eras tapped into the horror of recent wars and the twinned fascination with/repulsion to body mutilation or body modification. David J. Skal charted the rise of disfigurement as a motif horror in movies post World War I in his excellent genre study The Monster Show but I think the same thing happened during the late Vietnam era and after America withdrew from Southeast Asia. Both 30s and 70s horror were messy, Baroque, self-possessed, sexually informed and at times maybe even contradictory in their psychology; the heady, highly personal treatment of horror in both eras hit a sort of glass ceiling and ultimately beget more conservative, four-square shockers in the decade that followed, films that could be more excessively violent but were never quite as scary to me. Just as no film I can think of made in the 40s can match the queasy sense of transgression I get from Freaks, White Zombie, The Black Cat or Island of Lost Souls, no Reagan era McFright film can top the balls-out weirdness of Messiah of Evil, Let’s Scare Jessica to Death, Haunts or The Hills Have Eyes.
Sean - Attentiondeficitdisorderly Too Flat
I honestly don’t have one. I think most horror eras/movements lump in a bunch of junk with the really good stuff, so I just choose to focus on the individual good films rather than get all enthused about a decade or a scene or a subgenre or a country of origin.
Buzz kill! Thanks to all the scholars and historians who participated in this week’s Horror Roundtable. You may have noticed some new names added to the rabble, so please take a moment and click those links to sample more of their wares. But before you go, feel free to enlighten us in the comments below, Professor.
February 2nd, 2008 at 1:39 am
1970s!
In particular the lower-budget offerings crossed so many subgenres of horror. There were satanic/witchcraft paranoia pictures, such as my personal favorite, RACE WITH THE DEVIL, insane biker movies like THE WILD RIDERS, and WEREWOLVES ON WHEELS, all the great mondo-style jungle sleaze out of Italy. Then there were the wacky mutant animal pictures, such as NIGHT OF THE LEPUS and FOOD OF THE GODS.
To men, watching a grainy 70s flick is like a warm blanket… It’s just something comforting about it.
February 2nd, 2008 at 5:43 am
Am I the only one? Hammer, 60s, is my comfort zone. I grew up loving the Universals on TV, and seeing the Hammer double-bills as they came out was the perfect next step. Great atmosphere, wonderful sets, beautifully shot. A little blood, Peter Cushing’s weapon-like cheekbones, and oceans of cleavage. I also liked the Italian gothics of the era, but the AIPs felt staged, too obviously tongue in cheek, and their Victorian heroes wore buzz cuts. The Hammers faked the period better.
Between British bands, J.G.Ballard and Hammer Films, I used to think England was the coolest place on Earth.
February 2nd, 2008 at 11:50 am
To men, watching a grainy 70s flick is like a warm blanket…
… that smells like pussy!
February 2nd, 2008 at 2:33 pm
Been super busy this week and forget to send in my response, but it’s probably pretty obvious that my favorite horror film eras are the ’60s and ’70s (Pierre, you’re not alone!). I love the sixties a tiny bit more then the seventies due to the way that many filmmakers mixed gothic horror with modern themes. Roger Corman and the Hammer films are also my “comfort zone.” Christoper Lee will always be my favorite Dracula (sorry Bela!). The early 70s was an amazing time for horror as well, but I got really bored with the slash and burn style that started taking over around 1975. The supernatural/gothic elements took a backseat and horror has never fully recovered from that, but every era produces some great films.
February 3rd, 2008 at 7:10 pm
I’d like to put in a kind word for “now.”
I love the Universal stuff, appreciate Hammer and its imitators (without really enjoying them per se), genuflect before Romero’s reinvention of the genre and the 70s school of hyperreal-horror-as-political-message-delivery-device that grew out of it, and I left my heart in the 80s (grainy fim stock, minimalist synth, and rubbery FX in service of a good story equals awesome; if the story sucks, there’s still plenty of fun to be had).
All that said, I’ve been blown away by the decade so far (we should probably come up with a name for it before it’s over). I guess that’s because today’s filmmakers tend to be right around my own age, so my cherished memories are their professional influences. Yeah, we’re still talking about 1 good flick for every 20 crappy ones, but such is film.
Geez, until I saw this post I forgot how much the 50s and 90s sucked. Tranquility has its upside, to be sure, but it kills our genre dead.
February 4th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
The 70’s!!!
Hate the 90’s yet I continue to be fascinated with the early 90’s horror that killed off 80’s horror.
This past year, 2007, was particularly bad with me not liking a single theatrical release.
February 5th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
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February 9th, 2008 at 2:21 am
I’m right there with Borehole in saying NOW.
Not because the majority of films made & released today are better than the high water marks of those classic eras of the past ( though there have been a LOT of excellent genre films released over the course of the past several years ), but because we have such an unprecedented variety of ways to see so many of our favs, both old & new, in their best possible incarnations.
Think about how recently it was that we were limited to whatever it was that was shown on our local stations. Then, even with the advent of cable television & the VCR, we were stuck with often grainy, subpar prints either broadcast or released on horribly pan & scanned tapes. All of which we gladly accepted because the alternative was even GRAINIER or muddier bootlegs that we grossly overpaid for. Again, gladly, because the alternative was not seeing these obscure, usually foreign horror films that we’d been reading about in magazines & books for years.
I shudder to think of how much money I spent lining the pockets of a certain genre mag editor/author/T-shirt entrepreneur who shall go nameless for the opportunity to build a near complete bootleg collection of uncut Argento flicks & Paul Naschy’s wolfman movies.
All of which were always advertised in his mailings as “pristine copies from a Japanese laserdisc source” (LOL!). And ALL of which instantly went into the trash upon their legit release during the DVD revolution.
Not that I hold any grudges, though all of VERY suspect “first generation” status, those old bootlegs served their purpose for a few years, allowing me to see films that I otherwise wouldn’t have until years later. Sort of an appetizer for the “real release” on DVD a few years afterward.
But, back to the subject at hand, now many of our favs are not only readily available on DVD in their preferred forms, but also in spectacular HD versions via disc and/or on cable or satellite.
In my making a case for NOW as my favorite era for the genre film, I’m standing on the fact that we now have a greater array of films, pretty much instantly available to us in their best possible quality than we’d have ever dared dream about just a decade ago.